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MEMORIAL 



Stephen Nye Gifford, 



Clerk of the Massachusetts Senate 



January 6, 1858, to April 18, 1886. 



BOSTON 

1 886. 









Wright and Potter Printing Co., 18 Post Office Square. 



|n Poi^or 



OF THE FAITHFUL SERVICE OF A TRUE MAN, WHO FOR MANY YEARS 

ADORNED THE TRUST REPOSED IN HIM BY EVERY QUALITY 

WHICH SHOULD DISTINGUISH THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND 

EVERY GRACE OF CHARACTER WHICH COULD 

ATTACH HIM TO HIS ASSOCIATES. 



Conrnronfecaltl^ of P^assatl^nsftts. 



Senate, April 27, 1886. 
On motion of Mr. Cogswell : 

Ordered, That the resohitions on the death of the late 
clerk of this body, the Honorable Stephen N. Gifford, 
together with the remarks on the adoption of the same, be 
entered in full upon the Journal of the Senate. 

E. HERBERT CLAPP, 

Clerk pro tern. 



(Hommonfotaltlj of Massachusetts. 

Senate, April 28, 1886. 
On motion of Mr. Cogswell : 

Ordered, That the committee on Resolutions concern- 
ing the death of the Honorable Stephen N. Gifford, be 
authorized to have published in suitable form, and in such 
numbers as said committee may see fit, copies of the 
resolutions recently adopted by the Senate, together with 
the remarks in supi)ort of the same. 

E. HERBERT CLAPP, 

Clerk pro tern. 



ANNOUNCEMENT 

or THE 

Death of Stephen N, Gifford, 

Clerk of the Massachusetts Senate. 



At the opening of the Senate, Monday, 
Api'il 19, 1886, the President announced the 
death of the Hon. Stephen N. Gieeord, its 
clerk, which took place at his home in Dux- 
bury, on Sunday, April 18, at quarter before 
four o'clock, p. M. 

Thereupon the following resolutions were 
offered by Mr. Lillet of Middlesex, and were 
unanimously adopted : — 

Whereas, The Senate has learned with profound sor- 
row of the death of its late clerk, Hon. Stephen N. 
Gifford ; therefore, it is 

Resolved, That a committee to consist of five members 
be appointed to draft and present to the Senate resolu- 
tions expressive of its appreciation of the character and 
services of the deceased ; and it is further 



8 



Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to his memory, 
the Senate attend the funeral services to be held at Dux- 
bury on Wednesday, the 21st inst., and that the President 
communicate to His Excellency the Governor and to the 
Honorable House of Representatives intelligence of the 
death of the late clerk, and an invitation to be repre- 
sented at the funeral services. 

Messrs. Lilley, Rowland, Nourse, Wilbur and 
Douglas are appointed the committee to draft and 
present resolutions. 

E. HERBERT CLAPP, 

Clerk pro tern. 



PEOCEEDII^GS IE~ THE SEISTATE, 

APRIL 27, 1886. 



Rev. Edmund Dowse, Chaplain to the Senate, 



offered the following 



Almighty God, we thank Thee at this time for all the 
felicities of domestic, social and civil life ; and we thank 
Thee more especially that our friends and associates, their 
characters and their lives, are so photographed upon our 
minds and hearts that though they are absent yet we think 
of them, speak of them, enjoy them and honor them as 
though they were still present with us. Our Heavenly 
Father, this draped chair and these bereaved friends, and 
these tokens of sadness and aftection now before us, 
remind us that the time-honored clerk of this body has 
passed away, never to return to his position again. And 
yet he seems to be present with us this day in all his native 
modesty and excellence. Grant Thy blessing to rest now 
upon the members of this Senate, and as to-day they may 
turn aside from their accustomed business to pay a fitting 
tribute of respect and honor to the departed, we pray that 
Thou wilt indite their thoughts and feelings and speech, 



10 



and so order everything that all shall be appropriate, — 
alike honorable to the dead, salutary in its influence upon 
the living, and acceptable to Thee. And while we stand 
in Thy presence we will not forget the absent, liereaved 
and afflicted family. Impart unto them heavenly comfort 
and consolation, and prepare them for all Thy righteous- 
ness ; and Thine shall be the praise for ever. Amen. 

Mr. LiLLEY, from the committee appointed to 
draft and present to the Senate resolutions expres- 
sive of its appreciation of the character and 
services of its late clerk, Stephen 'N. Gifford, 
reported the accompanying 

RESOLUTIONS. 

Whereas, the Senate is deeply grieved hy the death 
of its late clerk, Stephen N. Gifford, and desires to 
give enduring expression to its appreciation of his high 
character, and his eminent services as a pul^lic oflScial ; 
therefore it is 

Resolved, That by his death the Senate loses an inval- 
uable officer, who during twenty-nine consecutive years 
has with rare intelligence, fidelity and unfailing courtesy 
facilitated its labors, and the Commonwealth loses a 
zealous public servant and an exemplary citizen. 



11 



Resolved, That the Senate commends the example pre- 
sented by his long and honorable career to all who aspire 
to render unseltish and patriotic service to their fellow- 
citizens and the State. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forthwith 
transmitted to the family of the late clerk, to whom the 
Senate extends its profound sympathy in their bereave- 
ment. 

The resolutions having been read, remarks 
were made thereon as follows. 



Senatou Lilley of Middlesex. 

Mr. President, — Occasions like this remind us 
that the deepest emotions of the heart find halting 
expression in the language of the lips. As one 
who stands on the shore of the boundless sea, or 
seeks to scale with straining vision the snow-clad 
summits of the everlasting hills, so I stand in 
contemplation of the career which we honor 
to-day, deeply sensible that the tribute which I 
bring is inadequate, and that it w^ould be wholly 
unworthy of acceptance, but for the respect and 
affection by which it is promj^ted. 

Stephen 'N. Gieeoed was born July 21, 1815. 
For full threescore years and ten he lived and 
wrought with our fathers and with us; discharg- 
ing every duty with fidelity, and adorning every 
station to which he was called. While he was still 
in the active service of the Commonwealth which 
he loved so well, the shadows of the night forbade 
further labor, and he turned his footsteps home- 
ward, bearing the sheaves of a long, busy and 
honorable life. The announcement of the death 



13 



of this plain, old-fashioned gentleman, unheralded 
as it was by a single note of alarm, caused as 
profound a shock and as wide a sense of personal 
loss as would be occasioned by the death of the 
most eminent man in public life in Massachusetts 
to-day. "What memories it aroused! How the 
mind traversed the period of his life and noted the 
marvellous events which it embraced, in many of 
which he bore a conspicuous part. Born in the 
year which was marked by brilliant achievements 
of American arms on land and sea, and which 
closed the second war of the Republic, he saw the 
nation advance with wondrous strides to unexam- 
pled prosperity and power; he saw its population 
increase from eight to more than fifty millions; he 
saw twenty sovereign States take their places in 
the Union, and he witnessed the great struggles 
relating to slavery under the Constitution which 
began with the Missouri Compromise and ended 
with the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, and 
among the giants who engaged in them he 
counted many personal friends. Looking back 
through twenty-nine years, we see him called in 
his early manhood to the oflice of clerk of the 
Senate. He brought to the discharge of its duties 



14 



an invaluable experience as a teacher and legis- 
lator, the culture of the scholar, and, better than 
all, a knightly courtesy whose well-spring was the 
heart, and which led all who saw it and felt its 
influence to accord to him 

"The grand old name of geutlemau." 

Thenceforth we find him so inseparably associ- 
ated with every step taken by the Commonwealth 
that the omission of his name would render 
its history incomplete. In the most important 
era of its existence, it was for him to witness 
and record every act by which, with the blood of 
fifteen thousand of its citizens, and with thirty 
millions of treasure, it sealed its devotion to 
republican government, and, to quote his own 
sentiment, gave fullest meaning to the declaration, 
'' All men are created equal." In his lifetime the 
slave power had risen to gigantic proportions; 
crushing whom it could not conciliate, it impe- 
riously claimed the land for its dominion. He 
saw the beginning and the growth of the anti- 
slavery movement; and it was his high duty — 
oh, crown of fame ! — to attest Massachusetts' 
ratification of that new Magna Charta which 



15 



does indeed " proclaim liberty throughout the 
land unto all the inhabitants thereof." 

Twenty-nine years of incessant, arduous, faith- 
ful public service, unmarred by a single act or 
word which the most exacting would recall; this 
is the legacy left in our keeping, and in the 
keeping of our successors. Let us cherish it, Mr. 
President, in the spirit of loyalty with which he 
served, and, if need be, defended the department 
of the government whose honored servant he was. 
'No man was ever truer to the object of his 
allegiance than was Stephen K. Gieford to the 
General Court. Gentle though he was, he 
quickly and firmly resented any reflection upon 
it, or any attempt to limit its prerogatives. He 
had no patience with that flippant and unfair 
style of criticism of public bodies and public men 
which has of late so extensively prevailed. It is 
but a short time since, that in the presence of a 
most distinguished company that had assembled 
in his honor, he said : " I say that the character 
of Massachusetts, here and everywhere, where it 
is known, is due to the honesty, the fidelity, the 
industry of the General Court. T say further, 
and I know whereof I speak, that the members 



16 



of the Massachusetts legislature, those who 
manage the business, work harder, work more 
hours, than they would in their own business at 
home." His conception of public service was 
that of the old-fashioned school. To him it was 
honorable; nay, exalted. Through frequent repe- 
tition his duties might become commonplace, 
nevertheless, he was ever mindful that he was 
the servant of the State, and it commanded his 
best efforts to the end. According to his custom, 
he completed his daily record of the proceedings 
of the Senate before he ceased labor, and in 
such an advanced condition did he leave the 
work of his office that, on its reassembling, the 
Senate, though bereft of its guide, was enabled 
to proceed with the public business without 
interruption. Herein, to my mind, is a grander 
tribute to the cleric than can be i^aid by human 
lips. 

But it is not the public official merely in 
whose praise we speak. We hold in most 
grateful remembrance the man; the man of high 
purpose; the man without reproach; the man in 
whose seventy-one years there was no winter 
because the spring of love and charity for his 



17 



kind dwelt forever in his heart. The fact that 
my experience is similar to that of many others 
will perhaps justify me in referring to the time 
when I first came to this chamber, " with all 
my imperfections on my head," and almost 
totally inexperienced in legislative procedure. 
Attracted by the light that beamed from his 
countenance, as many had done before, as many 
have done since, under like circumstances, I 
turned to Mr. Gifford in my perplexities, and 
in him I found a counsellor, a guide, a friend; 
a friend to whom, alas ! I can never again 
acknowledge the debt of gratitude I owe. And 
it was not here, in the place of his labor, alone 
that his influence was felt. In every walk in 
life he commanded the respect, the admiration, 
the love of men. In the historic town in which 
he dwelt, whose name in later years has been 
given prominence by association with his own, 
he was the friend of all. The old, the young, 
hastened to do him honor. He held the chief 
place in their councils, and at their festivals. 
As their most distinguished citizen, he received 
the salutations of a continent, and at their fire- 
sides he was an ever welcome guest. To them 



18 



was known something of the sweetness of that 
inner life upon whose privacy we may not 
intrude to-day. 

To their tender care, Mr. President, we have 
committed his mortal remains, reserving to 
ourselves the grateful duty, now reverently 
discharged, of perpetuating in the annals of the 
Commonweahh a shining example that shall for 
all time lend inspiration to those who aim to 
" serve or save the State." 

Kind friend, farewell ! May spirits as gentle 
as thine attend us " when the swift river beai's 
us to the ocean." 



19 



Senator Howland of Plymouth. 

It is with great hesitation that I attempt to 
say a word to-day, realizing as I do that I have 
not the knowledge of language to express the 
feelings of my heart in the manner that I onght 
to do on this occasion. Our departed friend, of 
whom we speak to-day, endeared himself to all 
who were acquainted with him. It was my 
fortnne to be somewhat intimately acquainted 
with him, and I always fonnd in him a sympa- 
thetic friend and wise counsellor. 

As at times I have heard related the struggles 
of his early life, I have thought that they had 
much to do with his sympathy for those who 
had been and were deprived of the advantages 
of a liberal education. His early experiences 
seem to have filled his heart with sympathy 
towards those who had been deprived of that 
privilege. 

I need not speak, Mr. President, of his uni- 
versal courtesy and kindness towards all with 
whom he came in contact duriug his long 
service as clerk of this body. It is too well 



20 



known for me to add anything to it. In my 
own experience I can say that I always found 
him courteous and kind, ready to impart infor- 
mation and give assistance when it was desired, 
in a modest, unassuming and gentle manner. 
From the history of his life much may be 
learned. 

Born in humble circumstances, becoming 
fatherless when a small boy, through his own 
exertions he obtained his education and won 
that place in public life which he filled with so 
much ability and efhciency. He was always an 
interested and earnest worker in all matters 
pertaining to the welfare of the town in which 
he resided, his counsels always being taken 
with great respect and confidence by his fellow 
townsmen. 

By his death all associated with him have 
lost a tried friend and wise counselloi", his town 
a good and true citizen, and the State a faithful 
and efficient public servant. 

Mr. President, I feel it would be wrong for me 
to detain the Senate further, knowing as I do that 
so many are desirous of adding their tribute to the 
memory of him who has left us. 



21 



Senator Bourse of Worcester. 

We sometimes betray the narrowness of our 
mental vision, and dishonor our birthright, by 
thoughtlessly saying that the sturdy virtues of 
our Puritan ancestors no longer leaven our New 
England life. We malign our brethren, we 
falsely accuse ourselves, when we even suggest 
that the mantles of those virtuous fathers and 
mothers, who lived in the historic era of our 
Arcadian simplicity, have foil en upon degenerate 
sons and daughters in this age of complex social 
and political relations. No! In the enlightened 
civilization of a republic like ours, human graces 
find a congenial soil, and they flourish and bud 
and blossom in abundance, in infinite variety, and 
in all grades of society. Modest worth is 
nowhere a rarity among us. Sterling integrity is 
never exceptional. Dignified courtesy is not 
strange. 

But when we see a man in whom the successive 
legislatures of three decades have placed implicit 
and unstinted trust, never disappointed; when we 



22 



see that man, although an ardent political partisan, 
making no enemies; when, though the incumbent 
of a very remunerative and honorable public office, 
yet year after year he has met no rival striving to 
supplant him; then indeed and in verit}^ may we 
exclaim: O singular and fortuitous combination 
of moral and mental graces! O rare example of 
the typical gentleman! O model public servant, 
worthy the emulation of us all, worthy the 
lasting gratitude of the Commonwealth! 

We mourn the loss of a benignant presence, 
but we have left to us treasure of gracious 
memories; memories of a beneficent life, a life 
rounding gracefully to its close, and entering 
into the Sabbath of eternal rest while yet the 
vital enjoyments, energies and forces were all 
unimpaired. That urbane companionship we have 
lost forever, but the fragrance of that companion- 
ship remaineth with us. Of that fragrance we 
are not bereft, even by the angel whom men 
call Death. 



23 



Senator Cogswell of Essex. 

Mr. President, — The resolutions in honor of 
the memory of our old friend, Mr. Gifford, 
which have been offered by the committee 
appointed for that purpose, are most eloquent 
and iitting, and the remarks in support of them 
by the members of that committee, to which we 
have just listened, seem to me to leave nothing 
to be said in regard to their adoption. Yet I 
would like to say a word on this occasion. Our 
friend, after long and honorable public service, 
intelligently and courteously performed, has died 
at the sunset of his life with his harness on, yet 
with every official duty discharged in its fullest 
detail. Thus he died; thus would he have 
chosen to die. 

Mr. President, an old, tried and honored pub- 
lic functionary^ has gone to " the undiscovered 
country." Every official legislative act of the 
last quarter century, by which Massachusetts 
has marked her part in the progress, in the 
civilization, and the great events of that momen- 



24 



tons period, has been attested by the signature 
of him whose memory we commemorate to-day, 
— " S. N. GiFFOKD, Clerk." Governors have 
come and gone. Senates have assembled and 
adjonrned, but he for more than twenty-eight 
consecutive years has stood at his post of duty 
here, the manly, the fixithful, the dignified, the 
kind-hearted — aye, the big-hearted clerk of the 
Massachusetts Senate. 

We have buried him, sir, on the shores of tlie 
sea he loved to look upon, and by which, when 
his cares of office were over, he loved to dwell. 
I can hardly persuade myself that he has gone 
from our sight forever, though mine eyes have 
seen him buried in the sands of the Cape. 

Farewell, genial and beloved friend; farewell, 
the Commonwealth's long tried and ever faithful 
pnbhc servant; farewell, " S. N. Gifford, 
Clerk." God bless thy memory, and God lielj) 
us to make and set as good an example of 
honest, faithful, intelligent and genial pubhc 
service as thou hast! 



25 

" O tender heart that is still, 

Yon will falter with trouble no more, 
Nor know of the good or the ill 
Of a frantic world's uproar ! 

" Clouds sail, and waters flow, 

And our souls must journey on ; 
But it cannot be ill to go 

The way that thou hast gone." 



26 



Senator Dunbar of Hampden. 

We meet, Mr. President, to render honor to the 
memory and to pay a tribute to the character of 
Stephen N. Gifford ; not in formal and per- 
functory phrase of cold respect, recounting his 
years of service, the care, accuracy and fidelity of 
his work ; not with adulation ; not with the praise 
which, unmerited, is more unjust than censure; 
but out of the fulness of our emotions to say a 
few words for the benefit of those who had not 
the rare pleasure of his acquaintance, to indicate 
in what esteem and afiection we who knew him 
held him. I know full well that nothing that we 
can say will add to or detract from his reputation, 
nor will increase or diminish in any degree the 
love and veneration with which his friends will 
cherish his memory ; but we should be false to the 
dictates of our hearts if we did not strive in some 
imperfect way, some broken phrase, some feeble 
utterance, to give recognition of our appreciation 
of our loss. 

Men do not greatly mourn the death of those 



27 



who are conspicuous only for ability, or wealth, 
or power. The life of no man is essential to the 
progress of the world ; no matter how important 
the work in which he may be engaged, how broad 
and comprehensive may be his abilities, how 
skilful he may be in all the details of that 
work, if he has nothing else to recommend him 
to his fellow-men, his death will rouse no great 
or deep emotion. But it is hard to be reconciled 
to the death of a friend. We may bear the loss 
of prosperity with equanimity ; but the wounds of 
the heart never heal. And so it is, Mr. President, 
that the memory of our friend will not fade with 
this generation. 

Mr. GiFFORD was not a great man, as the world 
counts greatness. He accumulated no great 
wealth. He obtained no exalted public station. 
He strove neither for power nor for fortune. He 
had not those bold and aggressive qualities which 
compel success in the forum and in the mart. He 
was a modest, unassuming, genial, kindly gentle- 
man, content to do his duty, but only content when 
that duty was well done. What his standard was, 
what rare ability, fidelity and conscience he 
brought to that work, we who have seen him in 



28 



its daily performance know, and the record for 
more than a quarter of a century bears witness. 
He had a clear and accurate mind and his opinions 
upon most subjects were reliable. They were also 
positive, but never oifensively expressed. He had 
convictions and was not ashamed of them ; they 
were not thrust upon others, but they were tena- 
ciously held. 1 have never in all my acquaintance 
seen a man to whom could more aptly be applied 
the lines of that beautiful ode from Horace 
beginning '"'"Justmn ac tenacem j^'opositi virum.'''' 
He had a keen sense of humoi-. He truly loved 
a good story, of which he himself had great store. 
He was a skilful parliamentarian, well versed in 
all the mysteries of legislative procediu'e, the 
unfailing recourse of all inexperienced membei's 
and the prompter and assistant of many a pre- 
siding ofiicer. He had that essential for good 
work, a love for it and a pride in its excellence. 
Who ever saw him with work carelessly done or 
dragging behind ? Who evei- saw him impatient 
of anything but shams or injustice ? Who ever 
knew him too busy or too tired to lend assistance 
or counsel ? With such qualifications, with such 
a mind and temper, his election for so many 



29 



successive years as clerk of this Senate ceases 
to be surprising ; nor is it wonderful that he was 
the chosen arbiter and referee of all the disputes 
of his neighbors in his town of Dnxbury. 

And they k)ved him, those neighbors and 
friends. There were tears upon the fVices of 
many, and sadness upon the faces of all, as we 
laid him to rest beneath that bright and cloudless 
sky, near the shore of that evei- changeful but 
never changing sea, amid the beauty and the 
promise of the opening spring. 

Upon a tablet on the wall of the church which 
he was accustomed to attend, and in which his 
funeral services were held, there are these words: 
"Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, 
for the end of that man is peace." 1 cau think of 
no word which more aptly characterizes his death. 
The summons came swiftly and suddenly, but he 
was ready. His work was done. There were no 
wrongs to be righted. There was no injustice 
to be atoned for. Respected, honored, loved, 
mourned, his death indeed was peace. 



30 



Senator Walker of Hampshire. 

I would that to-day, upon this solemn occasion, 
Hampshire County were represented m the Sen- 
ate by one who could fittingly express her sadness 
because of the death of one of her oldest and 
best friends, Mr. Gifford. Speaking just a word 
for myself, and for the senators from Hampshire 
who have preceded me during his many ^-ears of 
faithful service, I can safely say that none have 
been more indebted to him for the counsel and 
assistance which all new members need, — espe- 
cially those whose previous education, experience 
and observation have not been of a character to 
make them familiar with the duties and responsi- 
bilities which must be assumed by all who come 
to the General Court of Massachusetts. Much 
have we received: gentle, almost affectionate con- 
sideration ; advice given with an interest like that 
which a parent might take in his child ; and, as I 
remember this, it is not strange that to me words 
seem inadequate to define our appreciation of his 
service in the pastj our eorrow in the present, or 



31 



to tell how truly and how tenderly we shall cher- 
ish his memory until, God willing, we meet him 
again in the glory of the great world beyond. 
Dear old friend ! Middlesex, Worcester, Plym- 
outh, Essex, Hampden and other counties offer 
to you their eloquent tributes ; but those of us 
who come from the hills and valleys of Hamp- 
shire ask only that we may weep with those who 
weep, and that we may sometimes briug our 
choicest flowers and lay them on your grave. 
Hail and farewell ! 



82 



Senator Murphy of Suffolk. 

I desire to say just one word upon these res- 
olutions, although I doubt whether I can add 
anything to what has been said so feelingly and 
so eloquently by my brother Senators. I feel that 
there are men, whom, in times past, Massachusetts 
has mourned, who may perhaps in public life have 
gained position, whose memory will live longer 
among the masses of the people ; but I believe, 
honestly, that no man in his walk, or in his sphere, 
by his actions and by his life, is better deserving 
of memory than he whose death we mourn here 
to-day. I have listened to what has been said of 
his public and his private life. Of his public 
life, as my personal experience goes, I cannot add 
one word to what has been said upon that partic- 
ular portion. I, myself, like other Senators here, 
have been laid under obligations to him in the 
way of showing me the path along which I should 
follow, in oi'der that 1 might know the technical 
portions of the duties which fell to my lot. Dur- 
ing all my term of service in the legislature of 



33 

Massachusetts I have never heard one word other 
than that of pi-aise when the name of the clerk — 
the former clerk — of this Senate was mentioned. 
If any one deserves credit, deserves honor, 
deserves remembrance, it is the man who does 
his duty by his fellow-men. And I believe that 
it can be safely claimed for the former clerk of 
this Senate that in that particular he has not been 
wanting. 

In other lands and other countries, where prog- 
ress moves with leaden wings, there is not that 
progress that we have here upon our side of the 
ocean. 

In the period of years which marked his official 
life, near one-third of a century, what has been 
the march onward made by our nation and our 
people, has been fitly and eloquently expressed 
here to-day. His official life, to my mind, marks 
one important period in the history of the nation 
and in the history of the State. I allude to the 
time when Massachusetts for one moment — for it 
was but for one moment — wandered from the 
path which her fathers had trod so proudly and 
so grandly in the years before. But it was only 
for a moment that she faltered, and to-day it is 



34: 



with pride that I say that in our State, the old 
CommonweaUh of Massachusetts, between men 
who come from other lands, there are not those 
barriers which at one time threatened to divide 
them, and that which weighs the man to-day is 
not where he came from, what may be his religion, 
but be he a man, be he honest, be he true, be he 
worthy of the support of his fellow-citizens. 
During the official career of our late worthy clerk, 
the beginning and the end of it marked this great 
and wondrous change, — to my mind one of the 
proudest pages in the history of Massachusetts' 
proud life, ^o deeds or acts, in the ages that 
are to come, will shine so brightly and shine 
so grandly. 

I think that the highest encomium that can be 
paid to Stephen N. Gifeoed is this, that he 
was a man, — a true American gentleman. From 
the first day that he took service of the State to 
the last, he was faithful to the trust imposed upon 
him, and we need no better substantiation of that 
fact than the unanimity, with which, year after 
year, he was re-elected to the place he so honored. 
It seems as if it were only yesterday, and I gaze 
upon his familiar face and his familiar form, in 



35 



perfect keeping with the siirronndings of this 
old and this historic State House, and to-day he 
is no more. 

I remember with pain and with sorrow, and 
with some pride, that the last action of his life 
was the affixing of his signature to the resolu- 
tions offered by myself in this Senate and accepted 
unanimously by this body — the resolutions of 
Home Rule. To my mind, it was an appropriate 
and a fit official ending to such a blameless official 
life. Resolutions sent from the proudest and the 
happiest of people on the earth in behalf of one 
of the lowliest and the most suffering that treads 
God's footstool. 

He did his duty faithfully and well to the last, 
and when he laid down his official pen, it was 
to obey the beckoning hand of the angel of 
Death. He has gone from amongst us before 
the throne of the Great Master, and if there be 
any faults in his threescore and ten years of life, 
I believe the tears of the Recording Angel will 
wash them out. 



36 



Senatok Morse of Nokfolk. 

I hardly feel, Mr. President, that I can add 
anything to what has been already said. But I 
recall the fact that the wisest man who ever 
lived, under Divine inspiration when Jehovah 
held the pen, wrote that " It is better to go to 
the house of mourning than to the house of 
feasting." Surely, when death comes so nearly 
as now, it is well to pause for a season, not 
only to pronounce words of eulogium upon our 
brother, who has left us " for that undiscovered 
country, for that bourne from whence no trav- 
eller returns," but it is well, also, Mr. President, 
to ponder on the solemn fact that we, too, are 
mortal, and have here " no continuing city," and 
that sooner or later our places, too, will be 
vacant; others will stand in our lot and do our 
business; for us, too, "the silver cord will be 
loosed, the golden bowl broken, and the pitcher 
broken at the fountain." 

You remember, sir, that when Mr. Garfield 
was stricken down by the vilest] assassin that 



37 



ever cursed the earth ; when the surgeons 
gathered around him, Mr. Garfield asked one of 
them, "Doctor, is the wound mortal?" and you 
will remember the answer, " We fear the worst, 
Mr. Garfield." And said the great, good man, 
"Doctor, I am not afraid to die." Why not? 
Because he was at the post of duty. 

Our brother who has left us met the " King 
of Terrors," we are told, calmly; and surely, 
like Mr. Garfield, at the post of duty. God 
grant to all of us who sit around this board, 
that when our summons, too, shall come " to 
join the innumerable caravan that moves to the 
pale realms of shade," we, too, may go, 

* * " not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

The prophet Daniel once heard a voice. He 
heard a voice that spake to him and commanded 
him to " stand in his lot." This man, whose 
chair is vacant, " stood in his lot " for twenty- 



38 



nine years, a modest, unassuming servant of the 
State. 

Did it ever occur to you, Mr. President, that 
men are wont to turn their thoughts into the 
records of the past for memories of noble lives 
and deeds, and forget the heroes of the present, 
and men who to-day stand in their lot, the sen- 
timent expressed by my friend the Senator from 
Worcester? To illustrate: The student of 
ancient history loves to think of the three 
hundred Spartans who stood at the pass of 
Thermopylae and there contested the advance 
of the immense Persian army. The Russian loves 
to think of Peter the Great, who laid aside the 
glories and splendors of his kingdom and took 
upon himself the garb and habiliments of his 
servant and travelled through all the length and 
breadth of all the Russias, mingling with the 
poor, despised and lowly, and then returned to 
his throne and set on foot measures to amelio- 
rate the condition of his people; the Irishman 
loves to turn his thoughts into the records of 
the past and think of Robert Emmet, and sees 
him in his last and cruel trial. He marks the 
wrath of Lord Kewbury as he propounds to him 



39 



the question : " Robert Emmet, is there any 
reason why sentence of death should not be 
pronounced upon you?" He hears him tell his 
executioners that the blood that they seek is 
not congealed with the artificial terrors that sur- 
round their victim. He hears him say that 
" There is no man that knows my motives who 
dare now vindicate them. Let my tomb remain 
uninscribed until my country takes its place 
among the nations of the earth," and " then, 
and not till then, let my epitaph be written." 
And to-day the hearts of his countrymen, in the 
mountains of Ireland, are inspired to engage in 
a well-nigh hopeless contest by the dying words 
of this young Irishman. And we Americans 
are no exception to the rule. We love to turn 
our thoughts into the records of the past, and 
think of Washington, the father of his country; 
we see him on that cold December night cross- 
ing the Delaware, or we see him at Yalley 
Forge, shedding tears over his little band of 
soldiers, who marked the snow as they marched 
with their frosty, shoeless, bleeding feet. 

But we have paused to-day, Mr. President, 
amidst our business, for a brief season to do 



40 



honor to a man who, though his name may not 
live in history Hke the three hundred Spartans, 
Uke Peter the Great, like Robert Emmet, or 
like George Washington, yet a man like them 
who stood in his lot, who did his duty, who 
loved this dear old Commonwealth of Massachu- 
setts, who died in her service, and gave his life 
for her. God bless his memory ! 

Did you reflect, Mr. President, what the just 
are finally commended for, and what it is that 
goes to make up a grand and noble life? ]^ot 
some great deed, like those that 1 recited. But 
for what? " I was an hungered, and ye gave 
me meat." It is the little events of life that go 
to make up character. " I was an hungered, 
and ye gave me meat; naked and ye clothed 
me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in 
prison, and ye came unto me." 

Not one man in one hundred thousand will 
be remembered by posterity and known to pos- 
terity; but we may all record deeds and acts 
like those of our brother, which are unknown 
to fame, but have been recited here to-day, that 
will stand when the Books are opened, when 



41 



the bronze has turned to dust, and when the 
canvas has faded. 

I remember to have read a story of a poor 
old soldier, who was worn out in his country's 
service, and who, on his way back to his father- 
land, took to playing the violin as a means to 
earn a living in the streets of Vienna. By and 
by this old man's sight became dimmed, his 
hand became palsied and tremulous, and he could 
no longer make music on his violin; and finally 
he sat down on the curbstone in tears, in want 
and hungry. There came along a stranger who 
said: "What is the matter?" And this soldier 
replied : " My hand trembles so that I cannot 
make any more music on my violin, and I am 
cold and in want and hungry." " Oh," said the 
stranger, " you are too old and feeble to play 
the violin, neighbor; give me the violin." And 
the stranger took the violin and began to play, 
and a crowd gathered round, and increased as 
he played on. Cheers rent the air, and some 
shouted and some wept. The stranger said to 
the old man : " I guess you had better pass your 
hat, old man." And he went round in the crowd 
and he filled his hat full. He did not expect to 



42 



have any money, and passed it to the stranger; 
but the stranger said: "Put the money in your 
pockets; I don't want any of it." And the 
stranger played again, with the same results, 
and then he left, and somebody in the crowd 
said: "Who is that? Who is the man that 
played the violin? " And said a man who knew 
him: "Didn't you know that man? That was 
Bucher, the great violinist, known throughout 
the realm of Austria." Bucher was a rich man, 
yet he assumed the old man's poverty, he bore 
the old man's degradation, he played the old 
man's violin. He became a street beggar to help 
the old man. 

Now, what does this story bring to our minds? 
Tt suggests to us One who left his home in 
glory; One who was rich, and for our sake 
became poor. How ought our hearts to well up 
in gratitude; and how ought we to go out and 
imitate the example of our brother who is no 
more, by deeds and words and acts of kindness, 
and make an enduring and an everlasting record. 
A Quaker once wrote : " I expect to pass through 
this world but once; if, therefore, there be any 
kindness I can show to my fellow creatures, let 



43 



"me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass 
this way again." I believe that our brother in 
his life was animated by such a spirit as that 
of this Quaker. He left no word or deed of 
kindness unsaid or undone, for evidently he 
didn't expect to pass this way again. 



44 



Senator Joyner of Berkshire. 

I regret that I have had no leisure to consider 
thoughts to express at this time. And yet, I 
have this consolation, for it seems to me we are 
filing in a single line past the bier of our dead 
clerk, and as we pass, each Senatoi", throwing 
his spray upon the coffin-lid, seeks to express 
some fitting tribute to the dead. But as we 
listen to these tributes, — jnst, appropriate, elo- 
quent, — we can but feel that the deeper 
feelings of the Senate have not been expressed. 
Words have no language for the deepest senti- 
ments of the heart. 

We do not stand by the bier of one whom 
we love and vex the air with noisy words, but 
we stand rather in marble silence, feeling there 
is something that words cannot utter; that until 
words have power to restore to that vacant 
chair the living form of the dead, the eulogy is 
incomplete. And, sir, nothing that we can say 
will restore that life. The Divine speech that 
would quicken the dead will not be heard; and 



45 



so the eulogy of the orator, though it be elo- 
quent as any to which we have listened, the 
elegy of the poet, though it be most graceful, 
will seem incomplete, inadequate. 

As we cannot restore this life, I am led, lis- 
tening here, to think of what was the lesson of 
that life. What, after all, was the secret of 
the success of this man? It was not because 
he had a clear head, a kind heart, good humor, 
gracious manners; not because he aided Senators 
in their work; but it was because he had found 
the work that he was fitted to do, — by nature 
fitted to do, — and that work he did. The les- 
son of his life is to seek out that employment 
for which we are qualified and then work in 
that employment. 

There was, perhaps no other reason for his 
great success, as a clerk, unless it was, that 
while he knew his OAvn business and wrought 
at his own business, he did not interfere with 
the business of others. He never stood upon the 
little pedestal to which Senatoi-s had elevated him, 
and from that pedestal sought to influence legis- 
lative action. Senators in the lobby. Senators 
in the committee room, were never button-holed 



46 



by this man. Whether it was public law or 
private law or constitutional amendment that 
was to be made, he ever remembered that, as a 
recording officer, it was not his duty to seek to 
interfere with legislators in their work. A wor- 
thy example, sir, perhaps, to many a man who 
may have held or still holds office beneath this 
dome. Having his duty to perform, knowing 
how to perform it, he made that his business 
and let other men's business alone. It was on 
this account that he clashed not Avith men on the 
sharpest points of their opinions, — political 
opinions; that he clashed not witli legislators 
upon their pet schemes. He took no part in 
contests. 

There is another lesson, sir, to be learned 
from the life and work of this man in this 
Senate chamber, a lesson that is alike a credit 
to him and an honor to the Senate. He held 
his place for twenty-nine years by the voluntary 
suffi^ages of forty intelligent men of the Com- 
monwealth. He was not carried into the office 
as a mere follower on a State political ticket, 
but each year by the separate ballots of forty 
men he came to his place. 



47 



The lesson that I learn, and that the Senate 
may learn, from this is broader. It is that we 
need no half political, half pedagogic commis- 
sion to secure fixedness of tenure of office; 
that we can trust to the people, — the intelli- 
gence of the common people, — to choose the 
right man for the right place, year after year, 
when they find him. We may say, sir, in the 
language of Lincoln at Gettysburg: "Men will 
little note, nor long remember, what we here 
say;" but as long as this thirty years' record of 
the doings of this Senate are preserved, as long 
as the Commonwealth shall endure, so long will 
this record, the work of Stephen N. Gifford, 
be a monument of the capacity of the people 
of Massachusetts, who lived through the great 
war period and for the twenty-five years that 
followed, for self-government. 



48 



Senator Howard of Bristol. 

I rise to unite my voice with those members 
who have preceded me in paying this last 
tribute of respect to the memory of our distin- 
guished and much lamented friend, Stephen N. 
GiEFORD. I deem it my part, coming here 
from the ranks of labor and representing a por- 
tion of Massachusetts' hard-toiling sons, to voice 
their sentiments in respect to the memory of 
him whose loss we mourn. 

I had occasion to trouble him, but not fre- 
quently, to make out reports for me, and I 
always found that he treated me with as much 
kindness, respect and courtesy as that extended 
to the most distinguished members of this Sen- 
ate. He possessed many of nature's noblest 
traits. I discovered that in the short time that 
I knew him, for he made no discrimination 
whatever between the cultured and wealthy men 
and those who came from the poorest ranks. 
I have frequently looked, in the past week, 
across this Senate chamber, and I have missed 



'^ 



49 

that kind, genial and fatherly looking counte- 
nance, and it i-eminded me occasionally of the 
words T once heard as being uttered after 
the death of a celebrated Roman senator, 
when it was said his absence made him more 
conspicuous than his presence. 

I stood in that little churchyard in Duxbury, 
and as I watched his family, his relatives, his 
numerous friends, descending the steps weeping 
bitterly over his loss, his manly sons sobbing 
like children in their hour of affliction, my heart 
went out in full sympathy to them and I had to 
brush away a tear of sorrow, though I tried to 
do it unseen by my brother Senators. I saw 
him laid in his grave almost beneath the shadow 
of the monument of Miles Standish, that brave, 
energetic and capable soldier of the Old Colony, 
and I thought that ere long his dust would 
commingle with that of those great men who 
are buried around him ; those hardy pioneers who 
laid the foundation of this, the greatest country 
under heaven, the home of refuge for the 
oppressed and persecuted of all nations. He is 
gone; as my brother Senators have said, gone 
forever ; but he has left his marks upon the page 



50 



of Massachusetts history and he has built for 
himself a monument in the hearts of all those 
with whom he was associated which time cannot 
efface. 

I thought, when I saw those boys weeping, 
when I saw his weeping widow, that in his life- 
time he must have been a kind and loving 
husband, a good father, a generous friend, an 
honest man. He was, as I am told, a friend to 
all men. The world can pay him no higher 
eulogy. May his soul rest in eternal peace, is 
my earnest wish. 



51 



President Pillsburt. 

Mr. President, — Our brethren who have 
already addressed the Senate have done full 
justice to the life and character of our honored 
and lamented friend, and I do not expect to add 
anything to the completeness of the tribute 
which, by them and by the resolutions of the 
committee, has already been so touchingly and 
gracefully paid to his memory. But my rela- 
tions with him have been such and so close, 
especially during this and the last session of the 
legislature, and my respect for him was so deep 
and my friendship so strong, that I should do 
injustice to my own feelings if I omitted to lay 
my humble wreath with the rest upon his grave. 
I was glad on coming into the Senate 
chamber this afternoon to find it dressed with 
the flowers which he loved. Their fragrance is 
like the fragrance of the memory which he has 
left behind him, and it is appropriate that the 
end of an honorable, complete and rounded 
career like his should be crowned with garlands 



52 

of flowers rather than with the emblems of 
mourning. 

The Senate chamber of Massachusetts is the 
place in which to pronounce the eulogy of 
Stephen IS^. Gieford. He was more identified 
with this place than with any other, and he was 
more identified with it than any other man. 
His career as clerk of this body was remai-kable 
in many respects. It is safe, I think, to say 
that in length of continuous service it exceeds 
anything known in the history of the govern- 
ment of this Commonwealth 5 and the length of 
his service is a sufficient testimony, if other 
testimony were wanting, to the character and 
the quality of the work which he did here. He 
served the Senate as its recording officer 
through twenty-eight years, and into the twenty- 
ninth, and during all that time, so far as I 
know, his tenure of ofiice was never disturbed 
by so much as a rumor. His election and 
re-election were always foregone; and while 
each assembling Senate went through the form, 
as it must, it was well understood to be only a 
form, and that the Senate of Massachusetts 
would never think of parting with so efficient, 



53 



so faithful an officer and servant while he 
remained able to continue in its service. 

He was in ahnost all respects a model clerk. 
If he erred at all, it was from excess of caution 
and on the side of safety. Without what I 
should call a legal mind or a mind especially 
adapted to deal with intricacies and technicali- 
ties, he had what perhaps was better, — an 
instinct for parliamentary law; an instinct 
which, superadded to his familiarity with the 
routine and business of the Senate, gained in 
his long period of service, made him not only 
an invaluable recording officer, but of the 
greatest assistance to the presiding officer. 
And if there is anything which I desire to 
specially emphasize to-day, since it happens that 
here and at this time my voice is the only one 
which can bear this testimony, it is that he has 
laid every presiding officer of the Senate during 
his time under obligations which will not soon 
be forgotten. And I ought to add, — because it 
was most characteristic of him, — that he never 
seemed to make any display of superior 
knowledge and never obtruded his advice. 
Indeed his advice, when asked, was given with 



54 

a diffidence and modesty that evidently were 
not affected but were felt. 

His personal characteristics most apparent to 
his friends, and equally apparent indeed to those 
who had only a casual acquaintance with him, 
were his geniality of temperament and manner, 
and a keen sense and unfailing fund of humor. 
It was these qualities that attached his friends to 
him and made almost every man and woman and 
child who ever made his acquaintance regard him 
with feelings of personal friendship. Situated 
in this public position as he was during an 
entire generatiou, he probably met and made the 
acquaintance of more citizens of Massachusetts 
than any man now living, and that he is follow^ed 
to his grave by the regard and regret of every 
one of these I need not say to you who knew 
him. 

I have listened with interest for any allusion 
by our brethren of the Senate to that which is 
almost always a subject of remark on occasions 
like this, — his religious character or his opinions 
upon religious topics. We need not hesitate to 
speak of this. Mr. Gifford was not, in the 
popular sense, a religious man, — by which I 



55 



mean that he was not accustomed very rigidly 
to observe the forms and ceremonials of relig- 
ious belief or worship. But in my view he was 
a religious man in a better sense. If he had 
been asked for a statement of his creed, I think 
he might have expressed it much as it was 
expressed by Pope in the lines with which you 
are familiar: 

" For modes of faith let graceless zealots figbt ; 
His can't be wrong whose life is iu the right." 

This, I think, was his creed, and that he made 
this vital in his daily walk and life his friends 
will remember. I cannot feel, Mr. President, 
that this is so much an occasion for mourning 
as for rejoicing. He lived a tranquil, a con- 
tented aud happy life. lie was spared, as he 
always desired to be, in the full enjoyment of all 
his faculties almost to the last moment, to die 
at his post of duty, having passed through a 
serene old age, surrounded, as the poet says, 

" With all that should accompany old age, 
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends." 



56 



We went down, the other day, to the home 
which he loved, and there laid his body in the 
ground ; but his better part is still with us, in 
the tender memories of his friends and in the 
sincere and lasting regard of the people of the 
State which he served so long and so well. 



The Resolutions were adopted by a rising 
vote, and thereupon the Senate adjourned. 



Stephen Nye Gifford was born in Pembroke, Massachu- 
setts, July 21, 1815. By the death of his father, he was left 
at the age of ten, with an older brother and his mother, in very 
straitened circumstances. Until he was fifteen years old he 
worked on a farm for his board and clothes, attending school 
two or three months in the year. He then for a time worked at 
shoemaking, but his health becoming impaired, he resolved to 
obtain a better education in order to enter the profession of 
teaching, and attended the academies at Hanover and Bridge- 
water, paying his way by working at his trade out of school 
hours. He began teaching in the common schools, and after 
some years established a private school in the town of Duxbury. 
He was a member of the House of Representatives for the year 
1850, and in 1851 was appointed an inspector in the Boston 
Custom House, which office he held two or three years. In 
1854 he was for a brief time Assistant Clerk to the Senate, 
and in the following year was appointed Assistant Clerk of 
the House. The same j'ear he was chosen by the Legis- 
lature, State Auditor, and again became Assistant Clerk of 
the House in 1857, and the following year was chosen Clerk 
of the Senate, which office he held until his death at Duxbury, 
April 18, 1886. 



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